schema-organization

Schema-Based Organization

This sample demonstrates organizing generated entities by database schema using the use-schema-folders-preview and use-schema-namespaces-preview configuration options.

When to Use

Schema-based organization is useful when:

• Your database has multiple schemas (e.g., dbo, sales, inventory, audit)
• You want to group related entities in the file system
• You want schema-based namespaces to match your database structure
• You're working with a large database where flat organization becomes unwieldy

Database Structure

This sample uses three schemas:

Database
├── dbo
│   └── Customer
├── sales
│   ├── Order
│   └── OrderItem
└── inventory
    ├── Product
    └── Warehouse

Configuration

efcpt-config.json

{
  "file-layout": {
    "output-path": "Models",
    "use-schema-folders-preview": true,
    "use-schema-namespaces-preview": true
  }
}

Configuration Options

Option	Effect
use-schema-folders-preview	Creates subdirectories per schema: Models/dbo/, Models/sales/, etc.
use-schema-namespaces-preview	Adds schema to namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Sales

Generated Output

File Structure

EntityFrameworkCoreProject/
└── obj/efcpt/Generated/
    └── Models/
        ├── dbo/
        │   └── Customer.g.cs
        ├── sales/
        │   ├── Order.g.cs
        │   └── OrderItem.g.cs
        └── inventory/
            ├── Product.g.cs
            └── Warehouse.g.cs

Generated Namespaces

With use-schema-namespaces-preview: true:

// Models/dbo/Customer.g.cs
namespace EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Dbo;

public partial class Customer { ... }

// Models/sales/Order.g.cs
namespace EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Sales;

public partial class Order { ... }

// Models/inventory/Product.g.cs
namespace EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Inventory;

public partial class Product { ... }

Build

dotnet build

Using the Generated Entities

using EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Dbo;
using EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Sales;
using EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Inventory;

// Entities from different schemas are in different namespaces
var customer = new Customer { Name = "Acme Corp" };
var order = new Order { CustomerId = customer.Id };
var product = new Product { Name = "Widget", Sku = "WDG-001" };

Comparison

Without Schema Organization (default)

Models/
├── Customer.g.cs      # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models
├── Order.g.cs         # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models
├── OrderItem.g.cs     # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models
├── Product.g.cs       # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models
└── Warehouse.g.cs     # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models

With Schema Organization

Models/
├── dbo/
│   └── Customer.g.cs       # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Dbo
├── sales/
│   ├── Order.g.cs          # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Sales
│   └── OrderItem.g.cs      # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Sales
└── inventory/
    ├── Product.g.cs        # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Inventory
    └── Warehouse.g.cs      # namespace: EntityFrameworkCoreProject.Models.Inventory

Tips

1. Use with renaming - Combine with efcpt.renaming.json to set UseSchemaName: false for the dbo schema if you don't want "Dbo" in namespaces
2. Large databases - This is especially useful for databases with 50+ tables across multiple schemas
3. Team organization - Schema folders can map to team ownership boundaries